William g-



(No Model.)

W. G. FOSTER.

PILLOW SHAM HOLDER.

Patented July 18', 1882 l PM 2E Winaies? UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM G. FOSTER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TOLEVERETT E. FITTS, OF SAME PLACE.

PILLOW-SHAM HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 261,218, dated July 18,1882.

Application filed May 27, 1882.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. Fosrnn, acitizen of the United States, residing in Chicago, county of Cook, andState of Illinois, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements inPillow-Sham Holders, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in pillow-sham holders consistingof a frame to which the sham is removably attached, which frame isadapted to keep the sham smoothly spread out and to be swung upon apivot, whereby the sham is lowered to its operative position, or israised above the same when the bed is in use.

The objects of my invention are to provide a pillow-sham holder whichmay be attached to any ordinary bedstead, and which, when lowered fromits raised to its operative position, may be swung clear of the pillowsand have its frame suspend the sham at the desired angle and at the sametime maintain the sham in a smooth condition to provide a pillow-shamholder constructed of light and cheap material and in such amanner thatit may be taken apart and packed ina small compass for handling or forsending through the mails; to providea pillow-sham holder the frame ofwhich may be readily and quickly adjusted to adapt it to shams ofvaryingsizes; and,finally,

to provide a pillow-sham holder with a novel form of pivotedbracketadapted to removably hold arms connecting the bracket and frame,and to be automatically locked when raised to suspend the sham above itsoperative position. I attain these objects by devices illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a front elevation of apillowsham embodying my invention Fig. 2, a side (No model.)

The sham-frame of my device is preferably constructed of wire, but maybe of any other material suitable for the purpose, and is made in fourdetachable pieces, a a b I), connected together by socket-tubes c c c c,which may be rigidly secured to thepieces (iv a for convenience inputting theseveral parts together and avoiding the loss of the tubes.Pieces a a are provided at their center of length with eyes.

d 01, forming the bearings fordetachable brack- 6o et-arms, hereinafterdescribed, by bending the wire about itself, and similar eyes, a e e e,are formed in the same manner in the bends of the wires 1) b,constituting the corners of the frame,said eyes 6 serving to give aspring-ten- 6 sion to the frame when the several parts are connectedtogether, and to form a suitable base, supporting holders ffff,receiving extension-pins g g g g on lines radiating from the center tothe corners of the frame.

It will be observed that the extension-pins are of substantially thesame form as ordinary hair-pins, so as to be sprung into their holdersand be adjusted toward or from the center of the sham-frame, soas todecrease or increase the capacity of the frame, of which they form apart, and adapt the same for shams of varying sizes. The scope of thisadjustment may be increased by means of the sleeves connecting the frametogether, and thus the size of the frame be varied to a very greatextent, and sufficiently under ordinary circumstances without the aid ofthe adjusting-pin. This pillow-sham frame is connected by rods or arms hh, having bent ends passing through the eyes d d, with a bracketconsisting of a pivoted part, i, and rigid part 70, the pivoted part ihaving a Y form, andprovided with a pocket, I, at the intersection ofits arms, and grooved lugs mm at the extremity of its arms, its stembeing pivoted in the rigid bracket, and having a cam face, 42, operatingagainst a curved spring, 0, the operation of which will hereinafter bedescribed. The arms h h are bent at their intersecting ends,.where theypass into the pocket l, the curvature of these bends being such as tonecessitate the springing of the arms into the pocket and theirrespective groove-lugs, as indicated in Fig. 3. To adjust these arms toplace in the bracket one of them 16b is first placed in its operativeposition. The other one is then held in a line outside of its groovedlug, then set in the pocket and swung around to its operative positionin the lug. The effect of thus swinging the arm isto bring the convexedends of the bends in opposition to each other, which has the effect ofpressing the body of the arm into the lug, or, in other words, spreadingthe arms apart, and thus locking them in the bracket. Bracket isprovided with the usual lugs, and the bracket i is pivoted in these lugsby a rod or crank,p, the bearing of which in the bracket t is flattcned,so that while it forms a pivot it also forms a crank for swinging thepivoted bracket to raise and lower the pillow-sham frame, the flatteningof this crank in the bracket 2' being clearly shown in Fig. 4. The cam aupon the pivoted bracket has a circular face and an angular face, thecircular face bearing against the spring 0 when the bracket is droppedto its operative position; but in swinging the bracket upwardly thepoint of the cam presses the spring downwardly, as indicated in dottedlines in Fig. 4, so that when the bracket is swung to an upward verticalposition the upper or flat face of the cam will lie against the spring,which has then resumed its normal position, and the result is that thebracket is automatically locked and the sham held in a vertical positionadjacent the head-board and out of the way of persons occupying the bed.

It is of course understood that the more convenient way of swinging thebracket and frame is by the use of the crank 19, and that while I haveshown a short crank adapted only for a single pillow-sham holder it isobvious that a longer crank might be used and operate two holderssimultaneously.

The rigid bracket may be screwed or otherwise secured direct to thehead-board; but 1 may use a cleat or bar secured to the end rail ,of thebedstead, to which the bracket may be By providing the frame with twopivotal movements-namely, that upon its own axis upon the arms h h andthat of the swinging bracket-it will be observed that the frame may beelevated without reversing it, and consequently wrinkling the sham, aswould be the case if it were pivoted at its upper edge to raise andlower, like a'leaf. Furthermore, this construction enables the settingof the frame at any desired angle, and also to adapt it to operate overlarge pillows, as shown in Fig. 2, as well as the ordinary size, theframe, with its pillow-sham, serving at all times to hide the bracket inits rear, for the reason that both sham and frame project above it.

With the exception of the bracket, little or no skill is required in theconstruction of the holder, and the detachability of the several partsenables it to be packed in a very small compass for shipping by mail orotherwise, and to be readily and quickly put together for use, in whichcondition it has all the desired rigidity and lightness for the purposeintended.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

1. A pillow-sham holder the sham-frame of which is in sectionsdetachably connected together by socket-pieces or tubes sleeved upon andextending beyond their respective sections, whereby the extremities ofsaid sections are aligned with each other, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with the frame of a pillow-sham holder,of theadjustable supplementary extensions arranged at the corners of theframe, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with the pivoted bracket and with the sham -1'rame,of the removable arms connecting said frame and bracket, substantiallyas described.

4. A pillow-sham holder the sham-frame of which has two pivotalmovements, one upon its own axis and the other upon the axis of apivoted supporting-bracket, substantially as described.

5. The combination, with a pivoted supporting-bracket provided with acircular and angular cam-face, of a rigid bracket and a spring adaptedto lock said pivoted bracket in an elevated position, substantially asdescribed.

WILLIAM G. FOSTER.

Witnesses:

J NO. G. ELLIOTT, WILLIAM O.'WHITING.

